Autumn approaching

With Autumn fast approaching, just one official day of summer left, I saw the first real scene of a tree with falling leaves. For awhile now I've noticed the subtle shift in hue of tree leaves, from yellow-green towards olive and light orange. Here you see three variations, with yellowish-green, yellow-orange and green-yellow tint. To make autumn leaf colours, I mix low chroma with high chroma. For example yellow ochre (PY43) with benzi yellow (PY154), or burnt yellow ochre (PR102) with pyrol orange (PO73). Those mixes combine an earth paint with a bright synthetic paint, resulting in an interesting middle-chroma mix. If you go pure bright chroma, it looks fake, and pure earth, too dull. 

Autumn trees circle, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026

 

A chaotic scene, even the seagulls were agitated, maybe waiting for French Fries at the nearby burger joint. This is the bizarre  7-way st Jacques interchange where you have major streets and parking lot exits going every-which way. An auto dealership is nestled into the background around the Falaise escarpment. 

 

Noisy gulls traffic, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026

This scene had a desolate, almost apocalyptic feel to it. I've painted back-lit scenes for a long time now, it can be rewarding, but also frustrating if the first set of washes dries too light or dark. Starting with a reliable mix of burnt yellow ochre (PR102) and indo blue (PB60) with the correct amount of water generally works best, then over-painting with the details. I left some white space for an illuminated sign. The cars are simple blobs with just enough detail and colour to indicate their identity as cars. Since I got new reading glasses, I saw my paintings clearly for the first time in years and noticed some of them were getting sloppy... so I will try to sharpen them up a bit. I also noticed all the dirt and grime on my office desk and was appalled! Some things are better without the glasses I guess.  

Apocalyptic burgers, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026 

Decarie Mall scenes

There has been an announcement that the Decarie mall will be re-developed, i.e. demolished and replaced with Condo towers. I've painted up there quite a few times, first discovering it during the pandemic year. This scene shows a view of the parking lot grassy area, with a hydrant, and small yellow flowers. Its surrounded by a gloomy image of highway and condos. Yes, trees are turning orange already. 

Hydrant yellow flowers, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026

Using a curve-linear perspective, I depicted the Decarie mall in a panorama scee. It was quite busy, the parking lot full and lots of shoppers here. 

Decarie mall panorama, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026

From the same spot as the previous two paintings, this one looks due north along the Decarie, where it goes under the train tracks. Its a tricky painting with lots of angles and detail, but I have a new brush with a very sharp and firm point on it, which helped immensely. 

Decarie underpass train., watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026

Finally, up on the overpass sidewalk, and I got a view of these railroad ties piled up beside the tracks. It was done with a base wash (PB60 + PR102), then over-painted with an umber (PBr7) and pyrol orange (PO73) mix, then a dark mix of indo blue (PB60) and black (PBk6) created the shadow elements and texturing.  

Railroad ties, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026 

Little Italy south, Réseau-Vert Linear Park and nearby scenes

This narrow strip of a park is squeezed in between the train tracks and a large factory/warehouse complex in the south part of Little Italy neighborhood. I go out there from time to time to buy bulk spices, tea and food from Anatol spices, a store I have been shopping at for over 20 years now. Actually I rode out to Mile End with Cilei where she met up with her sister and Fritz to do the Tour-of-Island bike ride, its when the city shuts off large swaths of Montreal for a 30km bike ride. I passed on attending since I wanted to paint and besides, I do Tour of Island practically every weekend! There is not much I haven't seen. One thing I haven't seen is a tree surrounded by stolen 'No Parking' signs. It was worth a painting. 

No parking no more, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026

I would normally have painted more on a sunny, blue sky day like this, which is a rarity, but the medication gets the better of me sometimes so I hung on my bike and brushes for four paintings. The second one shows a stop sign, a parked bike, and some colourful graffiti, n the back-ground upper left, is part of the new elevated bus terminal. 

Signs graffiti bike, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026

Standing on a narrow sidewalk, here is a view looking due east at the Van Horne-Rosemont overpass on the left, its slated to be demolished, and a long factory wall on the right. I liked the sliver of bright blue sky and the triangle shape it made against the structures. 

Rosemont overpass factory wall, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026

Actually in Mile-end across the tracks, this is a water-tower on top of a derelict warehouse. Its slated for redevelopment when the city decides what to do with it. demolition is off the table because its a prominent landmark. In the painting, I cleaned off all the graffiti, its almost completely covered now. So much for landmark, its a graffiti canvas. 

Water-tower Mile-end warehouse, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026

 

Sunset (colours) on Elmhurst

Weary from teaching pharmacology for two and half hours, I could image how the students felt, I got out as far as coffee park and set up on the corner with Elmhurst. The sun was setting and I caught it on the horizon, hiding behind the tops of some trees up on Sherbrooke street. Adding cars like this was a challenge, they were reflecting the sunset colours, shimmering in the day's last light.

Sunset (colours) on Elmhurst, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, September 2026

Looking the other way, due south, the commuter train stopped and the barrier made loud clanging noises with bright red flashing lights. the train was only there a few moments so I had to paint it mostly by memory. Its one of the new exo trains that goes out to Vaudreuil-Dorion. although this one was heading to downtown Montreal.  

Red lights commuter train, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, September 2026

Downtown around Cabot square, pigeons, bins, empty lot

Down in Cabot square there is always some action and not always the kind you want to be around. But the people are generally just there to hang out and enjoy the blue sky in the midst of downtown Montreal. I got half way through this painting when a person came by yelling at something and the pigeons flew away. Oh well, the birds ended up looking like chickens!

Pigeons Cabot square, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026

Looking due north up Atwater avenue, that is Alexis Nihon mall on the left, and in the upper right is part of the old Forum arena which is clad in black now. The red hydrant anchored the whole scene, pyrol red (PR254) made it pop. That's the same red pigment used to paint Ferraris.

Blue green brown bins hydrant. watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026

I am by now familiar with the stages by which asphalt and gravel can gradually turn back into a forest given enough time. Once the hardy plants get through the rock-hard earth, they loosen things and then a field of grass and flowers will emerge, to be overtaken by tall trees eventually. This plot will be developed at some point, the city is just wrangling about what will be there. Its on Sherbrooke near the mall. The plot is a lot wider than depicted in the painting, I compressed its size to fit on this narrow aspect ratio. Today I dropped by Avenue des Arts after work and picked up some more watercolour paint and a few brushes. 

Empty lot growth, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026

 

Pick a corner and paint

After work I rode down to the Maisonneuve and Girouard underpass area and found a good corner to paint on. This scene had an impressive tree growing out of the concrete-base of a sign pole. I managed to get perspective on the stop sign and still keep the white lettering and border clean (white = paper showing).

Insistent tree sign pole, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026

Similar spot, looking due south towards the underpass, you see traffic going to and from the Decarie highway. Cutting across is Maisonneuve in the background, and the used bike shop is in the upper right corner. 

Girouard underpass pylons, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026

Closer to the corner with Maisonneuve, looking due east, here is a view of the Legion building, which has caramel-brown bricks and red and green facade elements. The windows have iron gratings over top. 

Legion building side, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026

This painting called for a close-up of a red tow truck but it did not turn out quite right. It didn't help that the mechanic came out and drove the vehicle off while I was painting. 

Red tow truck study, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026

To trouble-shoot I did another one of a black tow truck which looked cool, but in the painting it looks like a toy truck! I will practice these car profiles some more, it rarely goes well for me due to shoddy drawing skills. You may wonder how a painter can be such a lousy illustrator, and I often wonder the same thing!

Black tow truck study, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2026

 

Looking back: London Ontario, bus stop, rainbow wall, cows

I've probably posted some of these before, but still worth a mention as I look back on the London Ontario collection of paintings. This one shows a bus stop and yellow mail box, composed with a tree on the left. It was a clever composition and took a delicate touch to get the foggy glass effect, and yellow shadowing correct. 

Yellow mail box bus stop, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press,

At the time I was not aware of the symbolism of a rainbow flag, which likely refers to LGBT issues in this context. I just liked the colours, and everything else in London Ontario was grey and beige, especially in the Spring time when this was painted. These were all done around the year 2000 give or take. 

Rainbow wall, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press,

I rode my bike around town to make these paintings on location, although I used a backpack to carry the equipment including a small camping chair upon which I would sit unless there was a bench handy. So a lot of the paintings I did had a bench or ledge to sit on. It was not until the year 2020, when I did the Montreal Metro series that I began painting standing up and using my bike pack to hold the gear. 

Cows sitting in field, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press,